SEE https://www.youtube.com/embed/o5MPbZZ4xJA?feature=player_embedded
Uploaded on Apr 19, 2011 ……….http://www.srilanka.travel/…..
https://www.facebook.com/Awesome.SriL…
Julie Bishop canes Weiss
Courtesy of The Herald and Daily News
The opinion piece by Gordon Weiss (“Stance on Sri Lanka needs urgent rethink”, 4/4) includes a number of assertions that need correction. Most seriously, Mr. Weiss makes the untrue claim that during a visit to Tamil regions in Sri Lanka’s North and North-East just over 12 months ago I was given a guided tour by the Sri Lankan military. I led a delegation that included Immigration Minister Scott Morrison and Justice Minister Michael Keenan. A precondition of our visit to the Tamil regions was that we would be driven around by leading members of the Tamil National Alliance. This took place over more than two days, with no military, government or police accompanying our delegation. Tamil community representatives Our Tamil hosts were free to take us to any location of their choice and we were unhindered by any arm of the Sri Lankan government.
Filed under accountability, australian media, democratic measures, economic processes, gordon weiss, governance, historical interpretation, legal issues, politIcal discourse, power sharing, reconciliation, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, welfare & philanthophy, world affairs
China’s ALIBABA ‘penetrates’ USA
Vindu Goel, Michael J. De la Merced and Neil Gough, whose original article has a different title
The e-commerce behemoth Alibaba filed in the United States on Tuesday to sell stock to the public for the first time, in an embrace of the global capital markets that represents a coming of age for the booming Chinese Internet industry. It is expected to raised 1 billion dollars immediately and may be 15 billion eventually-making it the biggest American IPO since Facebook raised $$16 billion. “Alibaba is the fastest-growing Internet company in one of the fastest-growing economies in the world,” said Sameet Sinha, an analyst with B. Riley & Company, a boutique investment bank in Los Angeles. “They are like an Amazon, an eBay, and a PayPal.” Continue reading
Filed under economic processes, world events & processes
Romila Thapar on the doing of history — historical investigation/writing today
Professor Romila Thapar responds to Kuldeep Kumar in addressing the growth of Indian historiography, the tradition of dissent, and current attempts to stifle intellectual expression — courtesy of Governance Now magazine Vol.05 Issue-06 (16-30 April 2014)
Your book The Past Before Us comprehensively deals with the historical traditions of early north India. One wonders why and how the view that Indians lack historical consciousness came to be accepted.
This book that I published six months ago is on historical traditions in what I call early north India – that is anywhere from 1000 BC to 1300 AD. The book is essentially a study of historiography and that is an area of historical writing that we have not paid too much attention to in India, particularly not with reference to pre-modern India. It’s beginning to become very important with modern Indian history but less so with pre-modern history. It is significant as it is the study of the historians and ideology of the time, which conditions the writing of history. So, it’s history commenting on history writing. Continue reading
Sri Lanka’s Politicians as a Scourge
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A NOTE: This poem has been circulated a number of times previously. However, it is worthy of repetition, particularly in the present context.
Its author is Fr. Derrick Mendis, a Jesuit Priest, who was a brilliant student. He obtained a BSc Honours Degree in Economics. He then decided to qualify as a Chartered Accountant. The day he passed out as a Chartered Accountant, he declared his intention of joining the Society of Jesuits, which engages in evangelization and apostolic ministry, working in education, intellectual research and cultural pursuits, promoting social justice and ecumenical dialogue.
He is an amiable individual and is not averse to a sip of “spiritual” refreshment on social occasions, to complement his love of food. He is a talented musician, plays the piano and guitar [as well as the electron organ, ukulele, and flute] wonderfully, has a magnificent singing voice and a lively sense of humour. This all contributes to him invariably being the life and soul of any social gathering. He amazingly also finds time to indulge in his love for the sea, by way of swimming, snorkelling, spear fishing and fishing with rod and line. A big man, he rides a tiny scooter, is quite rotund and sports a thick – now grey – beard. He is a highly respected priest, whose sermons are apparently outstanding, with a fair sprinkling of humour. He is, of course, quite outspoken, as his poem indicates. He is now retired from his pastoral role, but continues to work with lepers. He is quite a personality!
Sanga’s ecumenical homily draws a revealing exchange between two Ordinary Blokes
A — Scyld Berry quotes from Kumar Sangakkara’s MCC Address: “As the rhetorical climax, Sangakkara proclaimed his identity: “I am Tamil, Sinhalese, Muslim and Burgher. I am a Buddhist, a Hindu, a follower of Islam and Christianity. I am today, and always, proudly Sri Lankan.” It was a mighty statement in a neo-con world which portrays other people as different, alien, hostile, inferior, killable.”
B — blogger “Stel En” writes: “I am a Sri Lankan. But I am confused of Sangakkara’s statement “I am a sinhalaese, tamil, muslim, Buddhist…mmm very confusing. If he is a Buddhist, killing cows is a sin. But if he is a Muslim he should kill cows for EID festival. Just saying
C– blogger “Kalindu Perera” shoots him down: “no need to say you’re a sri lankan. the fact that you took that statement literally, completely ignoring the finer nuances of it shows amply that you’re from nowhere else but our little emerald isle……… well done on completely missing the point of what he was saying, and making this into yet another religion vs religion argument. Are you by any chance one of Gnanasaara’s people?”
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SEE http://thuppahis.com/2011/07/09/kumar-sangakkara%E2%80%99s-ecumenical-lankan-nationalism/
Kumar Sangakkara’s Ecumenical Lankan Nationalism
“Fans of different races, castes, ethnicities and religions who together celebrate their diversity by uniting for a common national cause. They are my foundation, they are my family. I will play my cricket for them. Their spirit is the true spirit of cricket. With me are all my people. I am Tamil, Sinhalese, Muslim and Burgher. I am a Buddhist, a Hindu, a follower of Islam and Christianity. I am today, and always, proudly Sri Lankan” …. Kumar Sangakkara’s concluding sentences at his 2011 MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture, 4 July 2011…. for which see http://www.scribd.com/doc/59318468/2011-MCC-Spirit-of-Cricket-Cowdrey-Lecture
Filed under politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, tolerance, unusual people
Fulbright’s global vision is a LESSON to those with narrow parochial minds, Mr President
Amarakeerthi Liyanage’s Open Letter to Mahinda Rajapaksa
His Excellency President Mahinda Rajapaksa, The President Socialist Democratic Republic of Sri Lanka, Office of the President, Temple Trees, 150 Galle Road, Colombo 3, Sri Lanka.
Dear Mr. President,
My name is Liyanage Amarakeerthi, a Fulbright Scholar (1998-2000) and a university lecturer.
I am also a fiction writer of some fame and acclaim. More importantly, I am a Sri Lankan citizen who imagines a peaceful and prosperous Sri Lanka where all its citizens can live without any form of discrimination regardless of their ethnicity, caste, gender and so on. Usually I do not write letters to political authorities or any person wielding power. As an intellectual I keep a critical distance from all centers of power. I will certainly not write any letter to such authorities to gain personal favors of any sort. However, I often write in order to draw the attention of people like you, Mr. President, towards the important issues of our country. I publish such letters in the press, which is one of the important spaces for freethinking citizens to express their views on matters of national and international significance. In some of my recent articles to the press I have argued that state funding for education in our country has dramatically dwindled under your presidency. Yes sir. It has gone down. I hope you have read some of those articles. Continue reading
Introducing Political Conflicts in South Asia
Gerald H Peiris
Since the termination of European dominance over South Asia in the mid-20th century people living in most parts of the region have been plagued by various types of violent political conflict – some, excruciatingly prolonged and devastating in impact – most of which have roots in the colonial legacy. These range from international military confrontations and protracted civil wars to intermittent and localised riots involving rival groups with distinctive primordial or associational identities. Documentary sources of detailed information (academic writings, official records and trails of media reports etc.) on such turbulences, though available in abundance, are widely scattered, with certain sources remaining confined to archival depositories serving exclusive institutional needs. The present study is the product of an attempt, sustained over many years, to gather, systematise, and synthesise the information extracted from these sources, adopting, where appropriate, a comparative approach, and highlighting thematic concerns of salience to an understanding of the successes and failures of the South Asian countries in their post-colonial nation-building efforts. Continue reading
